Friday, October 3, 2008

The names of three more Pasco men arrested as part of a multi-agency drug raid in the Tri-Cities were released Thursday.

Enrique Lopez-Valencia, Fernando Vasquez-Alfaro and Pedro Ezequiel Zazueta-Bueno, all of Pasco, made their first appearances in U.S. District Court in Yakima on Thursday morning.

The men were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations when local and federal law enforcement officers raided about a dozen homes in the Tri-Cities and Spokane area.

They are being held in the Yakima County jail.

The raids capped an 18-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration into a large methamphetamine distribution ring.

Four Pasco residents were among 10 arrested on a 15-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury Sept. 11. They were identified Wednesday because they were named in the indictment.

The indictment, however, remained sealed.

Lopez-Valencia and Zazueta-Bueno were charged with possessing a forged, counterfeit, altered and falsely-made alien registration card.

An Immigrant and Customs Enforcement agent said the cards were obviously not valid government-issued alien registration cards, court documents said. The photographs weren't fixed as part of the card and the laminate didn't contain the correct security feature.

The numbers listed on the cards are assigned to a man and woman born in Venezuela, documents said.

Lopez-Valencia was arrested when agents searched a home at 420 N. Elm St. in Pasco. Zazueta-Bueno was found when agents raided some mobile homes at 925 N. Elm St.

Vasquez-Alfaro, also known as Jose Roberto Madrigal-Lopez, was charged with being an alien in the United States after deportation.

Vasquez-Alfaro is a Mexican national who was deported from the U.S. on Jan. 30 at Nogales, Ariz., documents said. He was found in Kennewick and did not have authorization to be back in the U.S., documents said.

The four Pasco residents accused of distributing meth in Eastern Washington and three other states pleaded innocent Tuesday in Yakima.